18 April, 2017

Nearly half a million Iraqis have fled Mosul fighting

The UN says
nearly half a million civilians have fled Mosul since US-backed Iraqi
forces launched a wide-scale military operation last October to
retake the city from Islamic State militants.

The UN
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Monday that
493,000 people have been displaced from the city. As many as 500,000
others are in IS-controlled parts of western Mosul, where fighting is
still underway.

The UN says
food, water and medicine stocks are running low in the western half
of the city, and that the fighting there is much heavier than it was
in eastern Mosul, which the Iraqi government declared “fully
liberated” in January.